In Jan/2020, I rated this hotel as 4/5 - roomy, clean, friendly staff. But not this time around! This time around, major issue blatantly noticeable was the extremely rude front desk staff - just warm bodies, without any hospitality or service. You sense they don’t want to be there and prefer not being bothered with any questions or needs. Requests get ignored: Had requested rooms appointed close to each other for 5-Executive Suites with reservations and requests made months ahead and reminder calls closer to arrival date. Rooms handed out were on 2-different floors in separate areas of each other. Concerns get ignored: One room reported bathroom faucet spurting water out too far wetting the person each time. That couple had to use the kitchen faucet for 3-days before someone came up to fix the bathroom faucet. There was no explanation for the delay (because all it really took was a reason of why it couldn’t be done and if reasonable -ie, no maintenance staff on the weekends, it’d at least provide an answer and not just being ignored.) One room was way too toasty, thermostat didn’t work. No fixes. No fans. No explanations. Just ignored. More than one room had broken window blinds (slats left on the floor-perhaps dropped off and one slat in front kitchen pantry/closet). Was told to submit issue online. I told front staff to just put in a note that the blinds were broken so we wouldn’t be charged for incidentals. Answered with a blunt “ok” or “done”. — really curt answers. No courtesy or manners in addressing clients. Never ever a “Thank you” - by no means, why? Our respective flight out got cancelled and we came to ask for courtesy late checkout at 12noon. The last couple asked after dinner was told to come back the next morning at 7am to ask instead of just taking the room number down as was done for the other rooms. We were told there were 16units available by another guy if we had to stay an extra night so availability wasn’t an issue. People get ignored (he, the front desk guy practically ignored us for checkout with being next in line. Ultimately called by the gal who wasn’t that much better but at least helped us check out). The rudeness was felt by all 9 of us in 5-separate Executive Apt Suites. It really shouldn’t be happening to any one of us, let alone all of us. This level of service is not expected from a top ranked hotel establishment but here we have that happening. If you could overlook all that, don’t deal with front staff, never mind a less than well maintained room, then it could be an ok stay. It’s now a 2/5 rating - at least for me (& my group). Just beware service can greatly add or detract from the overall hotel experience and reputation! Hope the management can work on this for future and returning guests to make it pleasurable!
Satellite TV did not work. Complained to desktop nothing happened. The restaurants within the hotel was so cold nobody could stay in it to eat their dinner. Even the chef and manager went around with heavy coats. The room was big, in its days I'm sure it was very nice. The floor had many cracked between the tub and toilet, reported to the desk. Next time in the area, I would consider another hotel. The staff was pleasant.
I’ve stayed at The Explorer many times (at least a dozen) in the last 3 years. When I first moved to the NWT, I actually stayed first at the newer Nova Hotel but found the room not very clean and the restaurant a waste of money for the quality of the food. After my subsequent visit to YK I stayed with The Explorer, and have kept coming back and requesting through my work as well as medical travel to always stay here. The updated rooms are great and Trapper’s Lounge has been consistently relaxing, with great staff & mostly good food. To preface, I’m not one to leave negative reviews, but after this stay I want to highlight a few of the unpleasant issues this stay has brought up as I’m very disappointed in a hotel a had previously thought very highly of. Firstly, I’d like to give hearty praise to Kate. She has been a consistent face working in the lounge and has given excellent customer service over the last several years. She has always been professional, friendly and lively even during very busy evenings when the lounge is packed. I can’t say enough positive things about her and she deserves recognition for being the kind of employee that keeps a customer coming back for the excellent experience she gives. William is a face I’ve not met before, but he gave myself and my partner also amazing customer service this past Thursday evening (April 27 2023). My partner wanted to clarify a few of the room charges and William found we had been charged incorrectly several times, as well as not provided our breakfast vouchers for our week long stay. Thanks to William, this situation was remedied and my partner was very impressed with the way William fixed the situation. However, that is where the positive feedback mostly ends for the hotel. Although the ladies working the front desk have always been mostly friendly and polite, the confusion and miscommunication around check-in, charges, and extending our stay did not sit well with us. What was already a very difficult medical trip was made even harder by not feeling confidence in the knowledge and professionalism of the front desk workers of the hotel that served as our home throughout recovering from an invasive and emotional procedure. We were over charged for incidentals twice, made late to one of our hospital appointments due to the front desk staff taking so long to answer a simple question, and overpaid for our meals when we should have been given vouchers. In addition, we left our card on the door to have our room refreshed and restocked at 9am one morning, only to return at 4:30pm to our room untouched. I called the front desk to let them know, and they said they’d “let housekeeping know, but they all go home soon”. We left for supper and returned a few hours later with our beds made, but zero fresh towels and no toilet paper- resulting in another trip downstairs to get these supplies after a long day of hospital appointments. The initial cleanliness of the room was also not at all acceptable
She was so kind and took care of me. She helped me when I asked for a taxi. House was cozy for stay yellowknife. I wanted to go again. It was near from quality inn.